The invention relates to a box of pressed materials for shipping fruits, vegetables, etc. which is intended for one use only and is therefore disposable and is adapted for storage in piles.
Disposable boxes have found increasing use as one-time packaging for shipping fruits, vegetables, etc. These boxes are then destroyed at the point of destination. It is important in these cases that the cost of the packaging constitute as low a fraction of the packed goods as possible and that their destruction does not interfere with the environment and does not result in large amounts of waste. This is for instance accomplished by burning the material when they reach their final destination.
In spite of these requirements the boxes must have a strength that the goods which usually are of a delicate nature are adequately protected. The box must furthermore not absorb humidity either from its contents or from the exterior atmosphere since this would affect the strength of the packaging material which in that case may disintegrate during shipment and may cause loss of the contents.
Disposable boxs have become known, for instance from the German published application No. 1,586,642 which shows boxes which are made of single thin panels of which each is connected with the next panel and which when opened up are in one plane and are made in single pieces from a mixture of lignocellulose chips or fibers and a curable binding agent.
This box of the prior art has proved quite useful for a number of applications. However, the manufacture of this box is still too costly for some used and the thus-formed product is therefore too expensive in a number of cases of use.
The object of the present invention therefore is a box which can be made in an inexpensive way from single parts without affecting the quality of the product. Besides, the individual boxes must be adapted to be arranged in piles so that they make the best use of available space during shipment and reduce the transportion costs. It is also necessary that they can be assembled in a simple way at the place where they are used.
The box moreover must be form stable to permit stapling in piles of large numbers of boxes. This involves the further requirement that the boxes must be formed so that when stored in piles upon each other they are not subject to shifting.